‘News analysis
I hear your call!
I hear it from faraway;
I hear it break the circle
Of these crouching hills...’
- The Call of the River Nun, by Gabriel Okara.
In 1953, Gabriel Okara penned those words that have become famous.
Nearly six decades after, another call is booming out from the Ijaw nation - only that it’s not from the Nun River, considered to be the direct continuation of the Niger River. The call is that of children and mothers, major casualties of the assault on Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State.
Every struggle or agitation needs a little theoretical underpinning - or an intellectual arm, so to say. The African National Congress was not different. There was not just the armed wing, but a London group which ensured that they offered a rich intellectual pursuit to the struggle against apartheid. But the Niger Delta agitation, at present, seems bereft of any intellectual component and the major casualties are its own people. It has not always been so.
While the Isaac Adaka Boro-led struggle was crushed, eminent historians like Ebiegberi Joe Allagoa and Tekena Tamuno ensured that a historical flavour and perspective was provided to situate the struggle of the Ijaw people. They pursued their people’s demands through the rigour of academia. This was also accentuated by writers like John Pepper Clark Bekederemo and Gabriel Okara through their poems, plays and novels. All their efforts were geared towards bringing attention to the plight of their kith and kin, and also to ensure a better life for them within the ambit of a functional Nigeria.
Some, like late Melford Okilo and Edwin Clark, took a different route. The political terrain was, and still is for Clark, their own way of seeking a better life for their people. While sometimes they’ve not risen above the usual pettiness and shortsightedness of the average Nigerian politician, no one can accuse them of not loving their people or not showing enough concern about their plight. Indeed, as recent as Wednesday, May 20, Clark was still organising a meeting with other Ijaw leaders on how to stop the attack on some Ijaw communities by soldiers of the Joint Task Force.
The Ogoni campaign led by the late Kenule Saro-Wiwa brought a greater fillip to the Ijaw struggle. Younger Ijaw elements watched and learned how Saro-Wiwa used his writings and public campaigns to elicit support for Ogoni across the globe. Suddenly, the Ogoni agitation attracted even the United Nations. The stage was then set for individuals like Oronto Douglas, Felix Tuodolo, Asume Osuoka, Doifie Ola, Kingsley Okoko, Patterson Ogon, Ibiba Don Pedro, Von Kemedi, and many others.
These environmental activists and journalists took the battle a little further by engaging and dialoguing with other Nigerians for a better run federation, knowing their interests are better protected in that federation. They campaigned for a national conference and restructuring of Nigeria and produced the well venerated, and equally derided, depending on which side of the divide one belongs, Kaiama Declaration. They also facilitated a cultural renaissance, bringing about the Egbesu cult and Ogele dance, potent cultural symbols among the Ijaw.
Arrival of armed boys
Subsequently, the phrase - resource control - became part of Nigeria’s political lexicon. Everybody was mouthing it, even those who did not understand it or how it came about. Trust Nigerian politicians, they soon hijacked it, particularly the Niger Delta governors.
Folks, whom even their citizens know as looters of the public treasury started campaigning for more revenue - the only thing they were concerned about as resource control. Expectedly, other Nigerian nationalities got alarmed and actively worked to kill an otherwise noble idea.
Further, the politicians proved smarter than the activists. They pumped more money into the region, with a mutated OMPADEC becoming NDDC and went a step further. They offered some of these activists plum positions in government both at the state and federal levels, silencing a critical component of the Niger Delta struggle. To the extent that newer faces emerged, people like Melford Goodhead Jr., known more now as Asari Dokubo, Tom Atake, Tompolo, and others of their ilk, became the more visible faces of an otherwise desirable agitation. Some of the militants are nothing more than simple criminals. Kidnapping and extortion of even their own people became common and as long as the ransom was paid, nobody bothered.
The results? Increased criminality in the delta and killing of thousands of innocent people as witnessed in Okerenkoko and Oporosa - and in Odi and other places at other times. For those who still care about the fishermen and farmers, who are only interested in less-polluted rivers and arable farmland for their subsistence, now is the time to heed the call. Take away the struggle from the impostors, reinvent it and seek a better life for the Ijaw and other Niger Delta nationalities. The Ijaw nation is calling: Anyone there?